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Sauternes & Barsac

There are at least two reasons, geographical and historical, why it seems appropriate to deal with Sauternes immediately after Graves. Firstly Sauternes - and the associated appellation of Barsac - is embedded within the Graves region, surrounded by it on three sides, on the fourth by the Garonne as it flows towards the Atlantic. Secondly, as I have explained in some of my introductory pages, these are the two most ancient regions of the left bank, predating the vineyards of the Médoc by many centuries.

Sauternes - Rotten Luck?

Walk among the vineyards in many of France's wine regions and it is striking how small differences in topography can make big differences in wine. In Burgundy, premier cru vineyards are separated from grand cru on one side and village level sites on the other by perhaps nothing more than a dirt track. The wines from either side of these ancient footpaths have remarkably different qualities, and command very different prices. Nevertheless, they still often exhibit a family resemblance, both identifiably Gevrey, perhaps, or Chambolle, or at least Pinot Noir. So why is it that here in Bordeaux, a walk towards the Garonne carries you from the dry white and red wines of Graves to the sweet, luscious, botrytis-rich wines of Sauternes? What is it about these vineyards that makes them so suited for producing such a unique wine, unlike so many others found in Bordeaux, in France or, indeed, the world?

To answer that question requires a little knowledge of the local topography. The Garonne no doubt contributes to some extent as it sweeps past the vineyards, but it is its tiny tributary the Ciron that perhaps makes the more significant contribution to Sauternes. Late on in the year, as the cool, autumn waters of the Ciron flow towards the warmer Garonne mists develop, lingering over the vines at the break of day, only dissipating with the warmth of the new day's sun. This early-morning moisture engenders the development of mould on the grapes, activating dormant spores of Botrytis cinerea, and provided the mists evaporate each day, drying out the vines and their fruit, the mould will tend towards Noble Rot (pictured left), rather than the more destructive grey rot. Noble Rot will desiccate the grapes one-by-one, concentrating the sugars as the water evaporates, without developing any off-putting, mouldy flavours, and in fact contributing an appealing flavour all of its own. Grey rot, which comes with persistent damp and rain, sees the fruit deteriorate into a useless, sodden, rotten mass that will taste, should anyone be foolish enough to vinify it, of rotten fruit. Noble Rot, aptly named, is king.

What is perhaps most remarkable about the region is the seeming inevitability of it all. Although there is debate over where the practice of fermenting botrytised grapes first arose - there are a number of contenders, some much more likely than Sauternes - here the process occurs quite reliably, more so than many other wine regions of the world where the conditions necessary for the development of botrytis only come along every so often. There are some vintages where botrytis is notably absent, and the régisseur and oenologists must wait for the sugar concentration to rise sufficiently through ripening without desiccation, but in most vintages at least some trace of Noble Rot may be detected, and in many it is prominent. Small wonder this has become the world's most pre-eminent region for sweet wine.

Sauternes Appellations

Although a knowledge of Noble Rot is undoubtedly more valuable in developing an understanding of Sauternes than a detailed knowledge of the terroir of the region, that is not to say that soil has no effect on the wines at all. Far from it. Indeed, although no appellation boundary is perfect, here in Sauternes we have an example where an appellation does seem to reflect a difference in the style of wine produced, and that difference may indeed be directly related to the terroir. This distinction is perhaps best explored by looking at the two appellations of the region, Sauternes and Barsac.

The Sauternes appellation allows for wines produced in five communes, namely Sauternes itself, together with Barsac, Bommes, Preignac and Fargues. As might perhaps be deduced from my statement above, Barsac is a little unusual, and it deserves particular attention. Although the commune, which is illustrated in the map to the right, is situated in the north-western corner of the Sauternes appellation, it also has an appellation all of its own, and its wines may be bottled as either Barsac or Sauternes. At first this seems curious, although when tasting and comparing the wines it is often apparent that those of Barsac tend to have a racier and fresher style than others of the region, and it does not seem so inappropriate to consider them apart. This difference may well reflect the terroir of the region; the soils of Barsac, although peppered with limestone, typically have a red, sandy, alluvial character which reflects the proximity of the Ciron and the Garonne, and this sets this commune apart from its neighbours. Although as a result the wines may be lighter and racier, they are no less sincere than wines from the vineyards of the other communes just to the south-east, and indeed Barsac is home to some of the leading crus of the region, most notably Climens and Coutet, both of which have a long track record of turning out superlative wines. 

The journey from Barsac to the rest of the Sauternes vineyards involves a very short walk to the south-east, crossing the Ciron as you do so. Although parts of the appellation on this side border the river, a larger part of it is set back from the Ciron, and also from the Garonne, and the soils (and the wines) have a different character as a result. Nevertheless, despite these differences, regulations for the two appellations of Sauternes and Barsac are essentially the same. Both allow for only white varieties, namely the trio of Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon and Muscadelle, and although some estates do utilise the latter a significant number of the top wines are made solely from the first two. The viticultural techniques enshrined in the INAO documents for the appellations are also the same; the density of planting must be between 6000 and 7500 vines/ha for most soils except for argillaceous soils where it may be as low as 5000 vines/ha, the maximum rendement de base is 25 hl/ha, the minimum must weight 221 g/l and the minimum alcohol 12.5%, and the eventual style of wine is obviously sweet.

Before any further discussion centred around Sauternes it might be useful to look along the Garonne to take at least a brief look at some of the other appellations for sweet wines that lie along its banks. There are several of note, and perhaps the least known is Cérons, which lies just downstream of Barsac. It covers the wines of three communes, Cérons, Illats and Podensac, and appellation regulations demand a similar must weight to its more famous neighbour, although yields may be higher as the maximum rendement de base is 40 hl/ha. Across the river are a trio of perhaps more widely known appellations; Cadillac, which covers 21 communes, then Loupiac and finally Ste-Croix-du-Mont, the largest and perhaps the best known of the three. The INAO word on yields and must weight are similar for all three, and rather similar to those for Sauternes. Nevertheless, the wines do not offer the same quality, although they can of course offer value for money. Surrounding the three latter appellations is the Premières Côtes de Bordeaux, which accounts for wine from 37 communes along the right bank of the Garonne, which may be red as well as white, the latter being sweet rather than dry. The regulations are not stringent - the minimum residual sugar is 4 g/l - and the quality is lower than the aforementioned appellations.

Sauternes - One Glass of Wine per Vine

Back to Sauternes now. The romantic view of the region and its wines is one which the proprietors and estate managers of today are naturally keen to promulgate. With yields at some estates as low as 9 hl/ha, this has led to oft quoted statistic that each vine contributes a volume equivalent to only one glass of wine, each row of vines thus yielding only a few bottles. It is an evocative image, of precious berries each gently picked by tender hands, pressed with the force of a lover's caress in order to yield a few golden drops of nectar, which are then gently fermented under nature's aegis to produce a magical liquor that, once in bottle, will last a lifetime, if not an eternity. The truth, of course, is perhaps not so sepia-toned.

During the 20th Century Sauternes has seen more than its fair share of dilapidated chateaux and untended vineyards. Low yields are an inherent aspect of grape dehydration through Noble Rot, and low yields results in fewer bottles to sell; thus to commit to making Sauternes is a significant undertaking not to be regarded lightly. With a market in decline following the wars and depression that dominated the first half of the century, it is no surprise that so many of the estates lay untouched and seemingly unloved for decades. And for those that kept going, not all was so rosy. With no money to invest, barrels were used for vintage after vintage, which naturally affected the quality of the wine. Dirty, infected wood will certainly taint a freshly fermented wine, although avoiding its use altogether may also be detrimental - oak ageing does seem to help in fleshing out Sauternes. Winemaking became heavy-handed in some circumstances, especially in the face of some less than favourable vintages. In many cases sweetness has been ensured by Chaptalisation, the addition of sugar to the fermenting must. Think about it for a second; the image is of nature's bounty, the magic of botrytis, but for some estates the truth was that a significant part of the sweetness came from a bag. Today, the better estates tend to avoid the practice, but it is a technique still widely utilised. Sulphur has also been a problem - a hefty slug will soon bring the fermentation to an end, and the unfermented sugar gives the sweetness. It is somehow less magical than we might really want it to be, but this is the reality of Sauternes; sulphur is regarded as necessary by the majority of winemakers to prevent refermentation in bottle, and this is especially true with such substrate-rich wines.

Perhaps one of the more controversial techniques introduced in the Sauternes region has been cryo-extraction. It was at Chateau Rayne-Vigneau in the 1980s, under the direction of Jean Merlaut, that the concept of cryo-extraction was first put into use. In some respects it resembles the natural process for making ice wine, although here in Sauternes it is perhaps more a response to the climate and the condition of the grapes at harvest rather than a additional method of increasing the sugar content (although it certainly also has that effect). Botrytis cinerea requires very specific conditions, and with a damp harvest there is a danger that the beautifully shrivelled and sugar-rich berries will turn to grey rot, and that the quality will be reduced or even ruined altogether. This was a particular problem with the 1982 harvest, and Jean Merlaut, together with Professors Chauvet and Sudraud from the University of Bordeaux and the newly installed regisseur Patrick Eymery (of Chateau Guiraud), agreed to some trials of freezing the berries in order to remove water, leaving only the rich, botrytised juice, thereby potentially eliminating the problem of a wet harvest and the swollen, water-logged grapes that result. Naturally, however, the process has its problems and also its detractors, who claim that concentration in this way will only accentuate the flaws already present in the wine, a reasonable argument. Nevertheless, today it is a method accepted and utilised by many, not just Rayne-Vigneau.

Technologies and manipulations accepted, Sauternes remains the foremost region for sweet wine in the entire world. And as I have mentioned earlier in this guide, it also has an illustrious history. It is naturally impossible to ignore one very important facet of that history - the classification of Sauternes.

Sauternes - The 1855 Classification

Quite what the wines of Sauternes were like before they began to feature sweetness and botrytis is perhaps impossible to know. There were vines here many centuries ago, long before accepted wisdom suggests the region commenced producing sweet wines which was probably around the 18th Century, although earlier would be possible, and some records suggest the date was even later. Nevertheless, by the middle of the 19th Century Sauternes was most certainly sweet, as evinced by the writers of the time, and also by the handful of bottles from this era that occasionally surface, of which at least some (although almost certainly not all) must be genuine.

At this point in time the region was classified by the merchants of Bordeaux, along with the vineyards of the Médoc, in the run-up to the Exposition Universelle de Paris in 1855. This classification, which was based on price at market and nothing more, produced a three-tier hierarchy which is still referred to today. At the head of the classification lies Yquem, which also dominates the landscape, lying at the heart of the appellation, sitting on a mound between the towns of Sauternes, Bommes and Fargues. Yquem, an unchallenged matriarch for the region, is followed by the premiers and deuxièmes crus. Many of these estates have experienced low-points over the years, particularly as the region had to cope not only with all that was thrown at Bordeaux, but also with a shift in consumer tastes and lifestyles, away from those that favoured or facilitated the consumption of gloriously sweet wine with any degree of frequency. Nevertheless many, such as Rieussec, Lafaurie-Peyraguey and Suduiraut, today turn out fabulous wines which sell at considerably lower prices than Yquem (although they are not cheap), and it is here that most Sauternes savants will look for their regular drinking. At the lower end of the ranking there are also a number of estates well worth exploring. Look beyond the classed growth properties, for the cru bourgeois estates that one finds elsewhere in Bordeaux, however, and one sees that they are hard to find. Only one or two spring to mind. This is not a region bestowed with chateaux turning out friendly, over-performing, inexpensive wines. The recent history of the region, and the expenses inevitably incurred with botrytis, which demands harvesting by several passes (or tries) through the vineyard and which drastically reduces yield (thus reducing the number of bottles you have to sell), preclude this. Nevertheless, there are a handful of unclassified properties turning out worthy wines, and I have included them here in my guide to the most notable chateaux.

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